The Blueprint?

“That’s now the blueprint on how to beat us, so we just have to counter that,” Allen said. “Put a big guy on (Rondo) and just force him to shoot.”

I’m not sure if Ray is doing this as a way to send Rondo a message through the media. Ray is a pretty smart guy… and if he’s saying something like that to a reporter, you can bet he’s said it to Rondo. As a fan, I certainly find it frustrating… but if this is Ray’s way of getting a message through to Rondo, then I’m all for it.

based on some of his recent comments, and his actions – I’m starting to think Ray Allen is kind of a whiny bitch.

Dude, Ray, seriously – the blueprint for beating the Celtics is the other team sitting back and watching you do your best Antoine Walker impression by going 0 for 9 from behind the 3 point line against a lackluster, bottom-tier team.

Over the last week or so (since they started losing) it’s been apparent that Ray has been running his mouth, both to the press and to his teammates during timeouts.

But Ray has been cold as ice the last week or so, with the exception of the Wizards game. He doesn’t have his ankle surgeries to blame his streaky, piss poor one night/halfway decent the next shooting on.

I’m glad that Perk has calmed down with the techs. KG needs to not throw elbows at dudes.

And I think the Celts need to look at Joe Smith, since they lost out on Mutombo. Rondo isn’t the problem. Big Man depth is.

Danno - January 5, 2009 at 12:46 pm

Nah…it’s not a big deal. He isn’t saying anything that pretty much every team and player doesn’t already know. We know that he doesn’t like to shoot the ball, and isn’t great at it.

Lakers2009 - January 5, 2009 at 1:42 pm

Like it or not…. Ray Allen is exactly right.

Remember the only way the Lakers beat the Celtics last year????? Just back off Rondo. That’s the easiest way to beat the Celtics.

And the All-star thing is just ridiculous…. if you can’t hit a 15 foot jumper you are not an all-star point guard.

Rondo is a great young player, but he still has major flaws that he needs to fix.

Tim (FD) - January 5, 2009 at 2:38 pm

Although I’m a Lakers fan, isn’t Rondo’s start to his career eerily similar to Tony Parker’s start? Both are fast as hell, and started out with no jump shot. Both were on championship caliber teams early on in their careers. If Rondo can pick up that 17 ft Tony Parker pullup jumpshot, he’ll get that allstar spot easy.

khw - January 5, 2009 at 5:28 pm

Ray Allen is spot on with his analysis and echoes my sentiments right here. Rondo seems adequately competent at shooting a three pointer when he has the time to line it up and check the wind speed and direction. So if he would just stand out there and pretend to be Ray Allen and wait for the ball to rotate to him, I have every confidence he can shoot it with a decent % if the defense continues to back off of him as far as they can without being called for an illegal defense. When Rondo makes a few of these, the defense will be required to respect Rondo and ‘recover’ towards him giving him the much better choice of shooting it over the guy or just blowing by him as the defender is coming out to cover him. Rondo is currently shooting 32% from 3 point range on the season!! A higher % than Gabe Pruitt who interestingly enough has more total attempts. Dead-Eye 3-Point specialist Eddie House is shooting ‘only’ 5 points better than is Rondo. If you can 32% from 3 point range that is just as good as shooting 50% from inside the arc which We’ll take any day.

I hate to say it but the problem is bad coaching. If someone tried this strategy against Steve Nash, he would just keep the dribble alive, back up 3 steps and if no one came out to guard him, casually line up the shot and bury it with a good %. No reason Rondo can’t do the same. Doc being a former point guard, there is no excuse for opponents being able to use such a lame strategy effectively against us.

Can someone forward this to Doc or Rondo for me?

zippittyay - January 5, 2009 at 6:26 pm

Excellent Analysis

Tim (FD) - January 5, 2009 at 7:17 pm

What really scared the crap out of me was listening to Doc before the game being interviewed by Mike Gorman. “Just because someone is daring you to shoot from the outside, doesn’t mean that you have to do it.”

YES DOC, IT MEANS EXACTLY THAT! Especially when the guy being dared to shoot it is your primary ball handler. Unless Rondo develops the ability or chooses to dunk the ball over the ‘Bigs’, He is effectively being taken out of the offense you are playing 4 against 5.